Half a year passed in the blink of an eye, and the time Babata had agreed on for repairing the spaceship arrived. In truth, it had been nearly finished six months ago. The group of four had even gone to Mars to see the mining machinery of an alien civilization; all that was missing was a light-speed warp engine.
That day, after Xue Xi had seen off the last table of customers as usual, Babata sent her a message saying that Luo Feng had successfully taken over the Golden Horned Beast Egg. Since his strength far exceeded the egg's, it was about to hatch, and Babata invited Xue Xi to come witness the event.
Xue Xi was curious, too. She simply closed the restaurant, summoned Little Wolf as her mount, and prepared to witness the historic moment when City Lord Luo emerged from his shell (really, she was just bored and looking for some fun).
At Little Wolf's summons, it rose from a remote mountain forest and flew through the sky. Yes, after being fed the Bloodline Evolution Pill and all sorts of delicious food, Little Wolf had become the only Stellar Rank beast on Earth. Oh, no—soon there would be a Luo Feng beast, so it wouldn't be the only one after all.
After signing a beast-pet contract a year ago, Xue Xi and Little Wolf had become telepathically linked. Once the hundred-meter-tall wolf before her had shrunk to the size of a foal, Xue Xi flew onto its back and sent Luo Feng's location through their contract.
Little Wolf instantly turned into a streak of silver light and shot through the sky. Xue Xi couldn't help but marvel at the Howling Moon Wolf's powerful talents. Little Wolf had gained three secret techniques from its bloodline. One was Original Body Heaven and Earth, just like the Golden Horned Beast's, which let it change its size. The second was the Phantom Wolf Movement Technique, which greatly increased its speed. The third was called Howling Moon: under the light of the stars, its physical and soul attributes doubled, though there were a few days of side effects afterward.
As a Stellar Rank beast and the pet of the Cat Ear Restaurant's owner, Little Wolf had become Earthlings' sacred guardian beast. Whenever people came to the restaurant to eat, they brought it fresh meat. Little Wolf never turned down a morsel, swallowing it all into its seemingly bottomless stomach.
At Little Wolf's current speed, even the King-Level Intelligent Fighter Jet was obsolete. A few minutes later, they reached an island in the Pacific Ocean. Xue Xi jumped down from its back and studied the giant egg glowing with golden light atop a stone pillar.
With the salty sea breeze and waves crashing against the shore, if Xue Xi hadn't known better, she would have thought she was at the scene of the Monkey King's birth.
When Babata saw Xue Xi arrive, it relayed the message to Luo Feng inside the egg. "Luo Feng, Xue Xi is here. You can hatch now."
There was no sound from inside the egg. Golden cracks multiplied across its black shell, soon covering it from top to bottom, accompanied by a series of cracking sounds.
Little Wolf, beside Xue Xi, seemed to sense a violent aura seeping out. It nervously communicated with her. "Master, I sense a terrifying lifeform about to be born in there. Should we strike first?"
Xue Xi soothed it by stroking its raised hackles. "Don't get worked up. It's Luo Feng in there. You've met him before. This is just another one of his bodies."
Little Wolf nodded in understanding, a flash of intelligence in its eyes. Luo Feng, huh? Looks like I'll have a playmate. Those fragile, low-level beasts can't even withstand one slap from me. It's so boring.
Meanwhile, the golden patterns began to split, and beams of golden light shot out. Suddenly, a huge but seemingly tender golden horn pierced through the top of the shell, followed by hooves, a tail, wings, a body, and a fierce head with four eyes on each side!
The Golden Horned Beast emerged from its shell and stretched its body. At last, it spread its wings, opened its mouth wide, and let out a heart-shaking roar. "Roar!"
The stench of its breath was so overpowering that Xue Xi and Little Wolf shut their eyes and blocked their sense of smell. Amid the roar, Xue Xi even caught Luo Feng's shout through his mental power: "I'm finally out! That feels great!"
Pinching her nose, Xue Xi sent a message to the beast, which had gotten carried away with its roaring. "Third Brother! Cut it out with your divine powers! Your little sister's going to be poisoned to death!"
At the message, Luo—no, the Golden Horned Beast—stopped roaring mid-bellow and hurriedly shut its gaping maw. Somehow, Xue Xi even saw a faint blush on its black, gold-patterned face.
Luo Feng hurriedly sent his voice over. "Sorry, Fourth Sister. I-I didn't know the Golden Horned Beast had bad breath. Why don't you head back for now? I'll hurry up and create my human clone."
Seeing that Luo Feng was embarrassed and trying to shoo her away, Xue Xi stopped teasing him. She turned and solemnly held out her hand to Babata. "Babata, a year has passed. Isn't it time to hand over my fully repaired spaceship?"
Babata froze, then awkwardly produced the repaired Black Dragon. "Xue Xi, won't you wait for Luo Feng? It'd be good to have someone with you when you go into the universe together."
Xue Xi caught the spaceship, which was about to grow larger, under the Universe Pot and stowed it away. "I'll wait, but it's more convenient to have the spaceship with me. While Luo Feng is creating his clone, I can travel around nearby planets and keep from getting bored."
Babata withdrew its hand, which had been reaching for the spaceship, and gave an awkward smile. "Oh, I see. All right, then. Just don't forget about us when the time comes."
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